skubido:
Tanks for the update

izaray:
Free her ke, me ayam still suspecting that woman

Hmmmmm!

Ann2012:


I believe she's innocent, na her mouth just put am for trouble

Hmmmmm!

EPISODE 23
(CHAPTER FOURTEEN)


Sharon’s Garden of Eden.

YEMI LOOKED AROUND FRANTICALLY but could hardly see a thing. The noise grew closer and his heartbeat raced faster. The place was dark and the noise was eerie. He held his breath. The hairs on the nape of his neck stood in fright and cold sweats took over his forehead. Suddenly, the shrew came out from behind the metal container and the sound became normal. Yemi heaved a sigh of relieve. It was a tiny thing after all. This dingy room had a way of amplifying and distorting even the slightest sound. However, his distress was far from being over.

A strong damp smell hung in the air. The walls emitted cold air and he felt the chill in his bones. If the room was a little bit lit, he could have seen the cobwebs hanging all over the place and the junks lying all around. The irritating noise of shrews and mouse pierced his ears. He felt a spider crawled around his ear and down his neck. It tickled him. His natural instinct was to squash it but he could not move his hands. He had been tied to a chair at the centre of this dingy basement for the past six hours! The chair was hard and his buttocks now felt sore. He sat on one buttock at a time, alternating them every now and then. He had pushed Sharon over the edge again by refusing her fantasies.

A week had passed since Sharon held him captive. And it had been a week of frustration, emotional and physical pains. Sharon brought him here to rule as the king of this empire alongside her as his queen. However, Yemi had not cooperated one bit. That had caused him a lot and he had Sharon’s erratic nature to thank for it.

Sharon loved him dearly and would do anything to be with him. Each time he rejected her, either tacitly or outspokenly, he felt the full brunt of her anger. Thereafter she would come back to tend his injuries and literally cry for his forgiveness. That had an advantage, though it came at a painful cost—Sharon postponed the wedding with each injury he sustained in the process. She would not let an injury ruin her perfect wedding pictures!

The door opened and the sudden rush of light almost blinded him. He squinched. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the sudden change in light intensity. But when they did, he saw Sharon for the first time since he arrived here without her wig. Her hair was low rough curls, dyed blonde. She wore a pair of bum shorts and a tight-fitting round neck top that accentuated her bust. Her high heels added elegance to her long slender legs. Her earrings were round and big, the size of a pair of bangles. Under normal circumstances, her look would arouse the desire in any man. She carried Fluffy, her American Eskimo in one hand. Gee followed closely. Sharon switched on the lights and carried herself majestically down the stairs.

“Sha ... ron,” Yemi forced the words out weakly.

Sharon walked up to him and lifted his chin. She tilted his head left, right, and up. “Hmmm ...” She pulled up his eyelids one after the other like a doctor examining a patient. “You are alright, darling. Just a little weakness.” She turned to Gee. “Let’s go. He will be fine. Just get him some water.”

The two of them headed for the stairs.

“Sharon, why are you doing this?” Yemi drawled.

She stopped suddenly and turned back with a rage.

“Because I want to make you suffer!” she yelled. “I want to make your family suffer! I want your wife to feel the pains of not being with the one she dearly loves! Above all, I want you to suffer watching them suffer!” She threw her hands up and down aggressively.

“But what did I do to deserve this?”

“You lied to yourself, Yemi. You lied to everybody too that the reason you came back to Nigeria was that you loved your country; that you were proud of your black heritage while in actual fact you ran away because you wanted to ditch me!”

“But you know that is not true, Sharon.”

All of a sudden, her rage melted. She took short deep breaths to calm herself. Gradually, regret took over her face.

“No, Yemi. It’s not because I want you to suffer. No.” She shook her head slowly. “It’s because I love you. I love you so much I can’t live without you any longer.” She bit her lips gently as her eyes became moist. “Yemi, please return my love. I beg you.”

“You call this love? This is not love, Sharon. This is an obsession!” Yemi found the strength to yell.

“You won’t understand.”

“Then make me understand!”

She turned and walked up the stairs. When she got to the door, she paused. “Gee, bring him up.” And she went out of the basement.




To be continued ... Watch Out for the Next Episode!

NB: The book is NOW AVAILABLE on online stores. For those who don't want to wait for each episode to be released, get the book here:

1. OKADABOOKS: https://okadabooks.com/book/about/jewel_from_the_ghetto_2_the_return_of_shakirah/26442

2. SMASHWORDS: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/930731


Àdùkẹ́!
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EPISODE 24
(CHAPTER FOURTEEN)


Thirty minutes later, Yemi was brought to Sharon in the master bedroom. He had freshened up and looked much better. Sharon sat on a rocking chair close to the glass wall, watching what was happening below. Fluffy, her pet dog, sat by her feet, amused by the smoke dancing off the tip of the cigarette tucked between her master’s fingers. She wagged her tail.

“Please have your seat, Yemi,” she said, still looking outside.

Yemi sat down quietly on the sofa. She faced him now. “Yemi, do you think I have always been like this?”

“I didn’t know you to be like this. You were very loveable back in college. What happened, Shally Girl?”

“Hmmm ... Shally Girl?” She laughed. “Oh, that name ... It reminds me of our time in college.”

“Yeah, those days. I still remember how happy you always were whenever we called you by that nickname. ” The memory brought smiles to Yemi’s face too. “Good old days.”

“You know, that name goes beyond our college days. My dad actually gave it to me when I was little. It’s full of memories for me.” Her eyes shone at the mention of her dad, but Yemi saw the joy suddenly replaced by pain and sorrow. It brought back the bitter-sweet memories of her childhood no doubt.

“Shally Girl, what’s wrong?” Yemi was now relaxed. It was like the way they were back in college. The ‘animosity’ between them was forgotten, at least at the moment.

“You said you wanted to know how I got to this point.” She stubbed out the cigarette on the ashtray. “Well, let me tell you my story, at least, the part you don’t know ...”

Sharon Opemipo Adepoju was the last of four children born to billionaire Richard Adepoju. She was over pampered. Two things worked to her advantage: she was the last born child and the only girl. She loved her daddy to a fault and everybody—friends, neighbours, and teachers—loved her as much. She was highly intelligent and began displaying an astounding talent for drawing and painting at age six. She was also shy but amiable.

She didn’t know anything but love until a tragic event turned her life upside down when she was sixteen.

“I still cry whenever I remember that horrible day ...”

The entire family was travelling to the United Kingdom for vacation. She was to join them a week later because she was writing her Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE). Unfortunately, that was the last time she ever saw them alive or at all. The plane had hardly left the Nigerian airspace when it crashed. Nobody survived. They couldn’t even identify the bodies of her parents and siblings.

“God!” Yemi’s hand flew to his mouth. “Damn! I’m sorry.”

“That was how I became the only surviving child.” She wiped her tears and sniffed. “My life never remained the same ever since I saw the images on national television. They were burnt beyond recognition. I was so much devastated that I spent the remaining period of the exams in the hospital! So, I had to move in with my uncle, my dad’s only brother. That was the beginning of my problem. My uncle and his wife maltreated me so much that I still believe up till this day that they wanted me dead so they could claim my father’s wealth for themselves.”

“That was wicked!” Yemi yelled.

“I lost everything thereafter. I could not concentrate on my studies any longer and I failed my exams year after year. In my period of trial, I met a young guy and we became friends. His name was Melvin. He showed me the love I never got at home. He was everything to me. As time went by, we became so much in love. We practically lived for each other. We prepared for exams together, even chose to study in the same college in the States.”

“The same college you and I eventually attended?”

“Yeah.”

“How come I didn’t know him?”

“He never made it. He died in my very hands on the day our results came out!”

Yemi jerked to the edge of the chair. “Died in your hands? How did it happen?”

“He had checked our results and we both did excellently well. He was rushing to my place to break the news to me. He could have used the phone but he wanted to break the news to me in person. I was on the other side of the road he wanted to cross. Unfortunately, he was knocked down by a reckless danfo driver who was trying to escape the police. He died instantly!”

“Good God!” Yemi jumped to his feet. His eyes too were now wet. “What did the police do?”

“Those idiots? They ran away immediately they saw what happened. That was the most painful part of it. They didn’t even wait to help.”

“That was ridiculous!”

“Well, that was the last straw. We had actually planned to get married someday and spend the rest of our lives together. I don’t even know how I survived after that. I closed my mind to love thereafter. I realised that life was unfair to me. It had a way of taking away everyone that meant so much to me during remarkable times in my life. I feared that if I fell in love again life might deal me another blow. I couldn’t and didn’t want to bear that pain again.”

“Wow!”

“I eventually got into college and I succeeded in warding off advances from men until I met you—or would I say you found me?”

Yemi’s eyes opened wide.

“You were different. You were caring, loving, and a good listener. You reminded me so much of Melvin. As much as I tried to block my heart from loving you, the heart remained adamant. Before I knew it, I was already in love with you.”

“But we were just friends, that was all!”

“To you maybe. But in my mind, I saw us as more than friends. I saw you as my future husband. Then you left for Harvard ...”

“But why didn’t you tell me you had feelings for me?”

“You know I was a very shy person.”

“You still are, just that ... hmm ... never mind.”

“After you left, you never looked back—no calls, no visits, no nothing. I felt abandoned. Even at that, I still loved you dearly and always dreamt of being your wife someday. I kept tab of your progress, every single one of them.”

Yemi felt bad. “I’m sorry, Sharon. I didn’t know.”

“Let me show you something.” She got up and went to a drawer. She unlocked it and brought out a folded canvas. She handed it over to him. “You are the only person seeing this apart from me. It’s been my secret for years now.”

Yemi unfolded the canvas. And by the time he fully opened it, a seizure held him. His jaw dropped and he felt like his eyes were going to dropped off their sockets too. He raised his head, looked at Sharon and returned his stare to the canvas.

“You painted this?” Yemi managed to ask.

“Yes. The year before you relocated to Nigeria.”

“This is wonderful! You are as talented as Da Vinci, I tell you!” Yemi admired the painting.

It was a painting of Yemi, herself, and their three children—two boys and a girl. One of the boys and the girl were carbon copies of Yemi while the other boy resembled her. At the background were the water fountain and the mansion! The painting looked so real that no one would have believed it was imaginary.

“That was the future I saw at that time. You and I and our children in this wonderful place. And I had not even built this place then.”

Yemi was speechless.

“That’s not all. Also, see this.” She moved closer to him and pulled down the neck of her top such that her left collar bone became visible. “Here.”

Yemi moved his eyes closer to get a better view of the tattoo just below the collar bone. They were three words, cursively written. It read: Mrs Sharon Williams! Yemi sank into the sofa.

“I got this tattoo same year I completed my Master's programme. It was my gift to myself for the success.”

“Sharon! You loved me this much?!” Yemi could not believe what he was seeing and hearing.

“Yes, I loved you that much and I still do!”

“You did all this and you didn’t say a thing?”

“I actually wanted to. When I eventually got the courage to tell you, I came looking for you and found out you had returned to Nigeria. I was happy since I had already started constructing this place. One of my biggest worries had been how to convince you to move back to Nigeria with me. But ...” She paused. Yemi saw the difficulty with which the next words came out. “But when I eventually got here, I discovered that you had married that ghetto girl called Simisola!” Her voice started shaking. She paused and struggled to put herself together. “That was the most shattering of all the tragedies I had faced. I returned to the States and spent the next three months in the hospital, in an intensive care unit! I prayed for death but death would not take me and I did not have the courage to commit suicide. After getting out of the hospital, I took to smoking and drinking. That was when my smoking habit started. I wanted a distraction from all the pain but no, they could not provide it! I continued to fight it until one day I realised I had to take the bull by the horn.”

“I’m so sorry,” was all Yemi could say. He did not know how else to console her.

“You don’t have to, sweetheart. I already have what I want. So, you now see why I am doing all this? It is because I can’t bear the pain of losing you again.”

“But, Shally Girl, I am already married—happily married at that—and I have a daughter now. How I wish I could turn back the hands of time!”

“Yemi, that marriage was not meant to be! I had known you before Simisola did. I had loved you before she did. And I had planned for our future before she ever dreamt of knowing you. I own you, Yemi. Not her!” Her voice started rising.

“But it’s too late now. Moreover, it wasn’t my fault and neither was it Simisola’s. Perhaps, Mother Nature didn’t want us together.”

“Yemi, leave Mother Nature out of this! And how could you say it wasn’t your fault? Whose fault was it then? Who left for Harvard and never looked back? YOU! Who ran down to Nigeria to marry? YOU! Perhaps, if you had called. Maybe just one call might have changed everything!” Her voice climbed higher. “By the way, what do you mean by too late?”

“What would you have me do?”

“Get a divorce, Yemi. GET A DIVORCE!”

“How could you ask that of me if you truly loved me as you claimed?!”

“This discussion is over.”

“Sharon, please don’t do this.”

She went back to her rocking chair. “Gee!” she called out. Gee opened the door and came in. “Get my sweetheart to his room.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She turned to Yemi. “Sir,” and nodded in the direction of the door.

Yemi wanted to hesitate but remembered the last encounter with her. He wised up and complied at once.

Sharon slanted on the chair, closed her eyes in meditation, and rocked the chair slowly. Fluffy watched her.


* * *


To be continued ... Watch Out for the Next Episode!

NB: The book is NOW AVAILABLE on online stores. For those who don't want to wait for each episode to be released, get the book here:

1. OKADABOOKS: https://okadabooks.com/book/about/jewel_from_the_ghetto_2_the_return_of_shakirah/26442

2. SMASHWORDS: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/930731


Àdùkẹ́!
...My Story, My World.

Like my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/adukestories/
Website: https://okoosiqudus.wixsite.com/author

is getting more interesting.. I pity for yemi and I am wondering how the police would get to know this Sharon's location... thanks for the constant update

Sharon needs to be in a mental home ASAP. I hope the police finds him before its too late.

Ndahimo:
Sharon needs to be in a mental home ASAP. I hope the police finds him before its too late.

I'm telling you, she's so annoying i swear

Thanks for the update

Force love, rubbish, is it by force to marry Yemi, thanks for the updates

Now I know. Thanks for the update.

Her story left me speechless. But she has to let go, because is too late to have Yemi.

EPISODE 24 (JARA ON TOP)

Three Days Later.

Yemi had been pondering over the story Sharon told him. He felt so much for her. The story touched him. Each time he remembered it, he felt a splitting pain strike his heart. There was no doubt that Sharon had passed through a lot.

He remembered when they were together in college. Sharon was loveable and highly intelligent but shy and withdrawn. She was a lady with a wonderful future ahead of her. They were close friends. Sharon kept to herself all the time and as a result, had only two friends—Yemi and one other lady. People thought she was weird. If only they got close they would have realised that her being an introvert was partly because of her painful experience in life and partly because of her shy personality.

However, Yemi saw what nobody else saw in her and moved close to her. He felt an urge to help her break free from her shell. And contrary to what everyone else believed, she embraced his friendship and did not push him away. For someone who had only two friends, there was so much love and attention to share between them and Yemi surely got an overdose. And because she spent so much time with him, it was not long before she started developing feelings for him.

When Yemi suddenly changed school, the void it left in her life could only be imagined. It was made worse by Yemi leaving her in a total state of incommunicado. In fact, it would have been better if he had not known her at all. The resultant effect of that action was the birth of the crazy Sharon Yemi now knew!

As he thought about it, he blamed himself for being responsible for creating the monster she had become. Why didn’t he think of her all those years his mother nagged him to get a wife? Simisola came into the picture and the rest was history.

But what could he do now? Could he rewrite that chapter of his life? Right his wrong? Should he consider Sharon’s option? A divorce?




To be continued ... Watch Out for the Next Episode!

NB: The book is NOW AVAILABLE on online stores. For those who don't want to wait for each episode to be released, get the book here:

1. OKADABOOKS: https://okadabooks.com/book/about/jewel_from_the_ghetto_2_the_return_of_shakirah/26442

2. SMASHWORDS: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/930731


Àdùkẹ́!
...My Story, My World.

Like my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/adukestories/
Website: https://okoosiqudus.wixsite.com/author

Yemi please don't think like that o, abeg
Thanks for the update Oga James

Ehn!!! which chapter of his life does he want to rewrite??.. someone should borrow Yemi brain abeg..
Thanks for the jara sir

Thanks for the jara, God bless

This Jara remind me of Uti Nwachukwu Jara show. please ooh Yemi rethink before u rewrite!!

Yemi is in a big trouble

Hmmmmm


Tanks for the update

toyhin123:
Yemi please don't think like that o, abeg
Thanks for the update Oga James

Tell him ooooo!

becca2017:
Ehn!!! which chapter of his life does he want to rewrite??.. someone should borrow Yemi brain abeg..
Thanks for the jara sir

Abi oooo!

bossy512:
Thanks for the jara, God bless

You are welcome, bossy

Lilly4endu:
This Jara remind me of Uti Nwachukwu Jara show. please ooh Yemi rethink before u rewrite!!

Hmmmm....

aprilwise:
Yemi is in a big trouble

You can say that again!

EPISODE 25
(CHAPTER FIFTEEN)


EVEN NOW, WITH ALL the compassion and responsibility he felt towards Sharon, Yemi knew that the best thing that had happened to him was Simisola. And he felt even more horrible for the terrible things he did to her and their daughter. He could not even fathom the state Simisola would be in now. Merely thinking about it made him sick. He did not get the chance to explain himself to her before he was abducted. And here he had no access to a telephone. His phone had been seized. The thought of the phone brought something to his mind. Since they brought him here, he had not seen anybody with a GSM phone except Sharon. It seemed everyone else favoured a walkie-talkie and he wondered why.

A knock on the door jolted him out of his thoughts. It was Sharon and it surprised him that she knocked. She came in with cups of coffee—another thing Yemi had noticed; Sharon was addicted to coffee. She handed him a cup. He stirred it and took a sip. Her bright countenance suggested that she must have woken up on the bright side of the bed. Her shy expression reminded him of what she was like back in college. Yemi relaxed. She sat next to him.

“Sweetheart,” she began. “I saw in the news that your manager has signed a new striker.”

Yemi was shocked. Sharon talking to him about football? Today would be good!

“You mean Arsene Wenger bought a new player?”

“Oh, cmon, don’t tell me I am now more up-to-date about your club than you are. Haven’t you been watching the news?” She pointed to the TV hanging on the wall.

“How could I with all that is happening around here?” He took another sip of the coffee and it burnt his lips. “Ouch!” he fanned his lips.

“And that reminds me, have you given thought to our last discussion?”

Yemi pretended not to remember. “What discussion is that?”

“The divorce!”

Yemi jerked in his seat so much that his coffee spilt on his laps. “Ouch!” he screamed. It burned him.

Sharon took a sidelong glance at him. She smiled and continued sipping her coffee.

“Were you actually serious about that, Sharon?” He put the cup on the stool nearby.

“You thought I was joking? Yemi, you know I don’t joke with such things.” She stirred her coffee again.

“And you know I cannot do that.”

“Well, we’ll see about that.” She got up and walked to the door.

At the door, she paused and spoke to Gee, deliberately raising her volume so that Yemi could hear her, “Gee, my sweetheart needs a little motivation.” She closed the door behind her.

Yemi looked at the door morose. Those words still hung in the air. “A little motivation?” he repeated to himself. “What does that mean?” he muttered.

Moments later, he watched her from the window drive out in her Toyota Camry saloon car. Her Hilux security escort drove behind her. Where could they be going? He wondered.


Lekki, The Williamses’ Residence, Same Time.

The entire house was in complete disarray. Emotions ran high. With each passing day, the tension and frustration built. It was quite understandable. It had been ten days since Yemi went missing. He had not been found and neither had his body. Nobody had called to demand for a ransom or claimed responsibility for the incident. The police had not been able to come up with anything concrete other than the arrests they made. Mrs Abimbola, the prime suspect, continued to maintain that she had nothing to do with it. They had questioned eyewitnesses and the only lead they got was the colour and general description of the gateway vehicle. No one saw the licence plate number! Everything looked bleak.

The effects of all these on the family was unimaginable, especially on Simisola. Yemi’s siblings had all arrived from abroad to give support to the family and help in whatever way they could. Everyone was seated in the sitting room.

At that moment, Simisola suddenly became aware of something. She looked around ponderously. She got up and went inside without saying a word. She came back rather unsettled.

“Mummy,” she called out to Mrs Williams. “Have you seen Kayla?”

Mrs Williams sat up in her chair, suddenly realizing that she had not seen the little girl in a while.

“Kayla?” She looked around searchingly. She was here a while ago playing with those .... toys.” She pointed at where Kayla was and the toys, except one and Kayla, were lying there. Mrs Williams became terrified.

“Have you checked the room?” Niyi, Yemi’s elder brother asked.

“Yes, I just came back from the room and she wasn’t there.”

“She wouldn’t have gone far. She must have wandered off somewhere,” Mr Williams said ponderously. “Everyone spread out. Please check all the rooms and the compound.” She must be somewhere.

Everyone went in different directions, checking all the rooms in the house. Moments later, they reconverged in the sitting room empty-handed. Apprehension was glued to their faces.

Tinuke, Yemi’s sister, called out, “Daddy, look!” She pointed to the exit leading to the swimming pool. The door was ajar and Kayla’s toy—the missing one—was lying by the doorpost. Tinuke was shaking.

“What?!” Mr Williams shouted. “How many times have I warned that that door should always be locked?!”

He pushed everyone aside and ran through the door. They all ran after him. By the time they got to the swimming pool, everyone froze!

Down at the bottom of the pool was a figure, the size of a toddler, lying face down.


To be continued ... Watch Out for the Next Episode!

NB: The book is NOW AVAILABLE on online stores. For those who don't want to wait for each episode to be released, get the book here:

1. OKADABOOKS: https://okadabooks.com/book/about/jewel_from_the_ghetto_2_the_return_of_shakirah/26442

2. SMASHWORDS: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/930731


Àdùkẹ́!
...My Story, My World.

Like my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/adukestories/
Website: https://okoosiqudus.wixsite.com/author

Op please let Kayla be fine
Thanks for the update

why must you end it like this? you want to kill somebody with suspense o.. thanks for the update

Kayla must not die o

Damn!! Kayla is dead

Kayla can't die just like that oooo

Well done OP